Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage is hosting a fundraiser next week for U.S. Sen. Angus King’s Republican opponent Demi Kouzounas as she aims to unseat the two-term independent.
In an email sent Wednesday morning from a Kouzounas campaign address, LePage called King an “absent leftwing senator who caves every time Maine needs him” in promoting a fundraiser he will host the evening of Sept. 6 at Kouzounas’ home in Saco. Former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican who represented Maine’s 2nd District from 2015 to 2019, will also attend the fundraiser with a $250 per person fee and a $2,500 per person private reception.
“Maine deserves a Senator with the energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to represent our values in Washington,” the email signed by LePage says. “Angus King doesn’t have it. Demi Kouzounas does.”
LePage added Kouzounas is “committed to securing our borders, reducing inflation, and ensuring that the American Dream remains within reach for every Mainer.”
LePage moved to Ormond Beach, Florida, after leaving the Blaine House in 2018 following two terms as a governor who did not shy away from making controversial statements. He moved back to Maine and lived in the Lincoln County town of Edgecomb while running for governor again in 2022, but Democratic Gov. Janet Mills trounced LePage that year by more than 10 percentage points. LePage has since returned to Florida but hosted a fundraiser with his wife this spring that raised nearly $500,000 for victims of the Lewiston mass shooting.
He is not the first high-profile Maine Republican to wade into the race against King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and was Maine’s governor from 1995 to 2003 before winning election to the Senate in 2012. Kouzounas, 68, a former Maine GOP chair and dentist, said she decided to run against King in January after U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, called her to encourage a bid. King said he was “disappointed” in his colleague’s move.
King, 80, would become Maine’s oldest-ever senator if he wins a third term in November. He faces Kouzounas, Democratic candidate David Costello of Brunswick and independent candidate Jason Cherry of Unity in the Nov. 5 election.
A recent University of New Hampshire poll had 43 percent of Maine voters going for King, 33 percent for Kouzounas, 9 percent for Costello and 3 percent for Cherry. King had support from 70 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of independents and 7 percent of Republicans.
